They've been happy with Steam's terms of service for years. Why change now? Surely it can't be because they need some sort of excuse to pull away from steam and boost sales on their own distribution platform :| :|.

06-08-2011, 01:11 PM

Rii

"BF3 will not be available on Steam as the service restricts our ability to directly support players."

Interesting definition of 'support' they're working with here. EA would be far better served in my books if they simply admitted they want to keep DLC profits to themselves.

06-08-2011, 01:19 PM

Mistabashi

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rii

"BF3 will not be available on Steam as the service restricts our ability to directly support players."

Interesting definition of 'support' they're working with here. EA would be far better served in my books if they simply admitted they want to keep DLC profits to themselves.

More to the point, they're getting a lot of people to install and use Origin. It's exactly what Valve did with it's games and one of the reasons Steam is as popular as it is today.

The thing that annoys me is EA's blatant PR spin, blaming a competitor for what is an obvious marketing move is not at all classy, and makes me less inclined to do business with them.

06-08-2011, 01:47 PM

Megagun

This comment on this Reddit thread might explain things. If that's not the reason why BF3 won't be available on Steam, it might just be negotiations between Valve and EA that have halted as neither party thinks they can get a good deal out of this.

EDIT: Durr, I should learn to read. The OP's link also explains that this is due to the patching thing from Steam.

EDIT 2: Honestly, though. If I was creating a game that would be distributed over the Internet via various digital distribution networks, of course I'd create my own DLC payment system and patching system! If I wouldn't do that, I'd have to contact each network seperately and tell them that there's a new patch out! I'd also have to tell my Technical Support team to make sure to ask the customer where they've bought the game so that they can determine if there's a patch out for that specific Digital Distribution network. Basically, it would be a mess if it was not decided to create their own DLC/patching system. If Steam does not want to co-operate with this and demand that EA use Steam's patching and DLC systems, I can fully understand EA's decision to not support Steam. It would just cause a big mess, and I would be losing money to hire Steam to do a service for me that I already do fine myself. It's a bit like Steam requiring you to host your website on Steam, even though you already host your website at some other webhosting company.

06-08-2011, 02:19 PM

deano2099

The thing to note here is that Steam will, as far as I can tell, let you handle patching and DLC sales yourself from in-game. However, you also have to allow for the option of doing them via Steam too. It's a subtle difference, but a crucial one.